GAME 7: Staten Island 1, Baruch 0   Box Score

The #1 seeded College of Staten Island Dolphins defeated the #2 seeded Baruch Bearcats, 1-0, in the deciding Game 7 of the CUNYAC/MCU Baseball Championships at MCU Park. This game featured a pitcher’s duel between some of the conference’s top pitchers. This is the Dolphins 16th championship and they have now won three of the last four. The Bearcats were the defending champions and had won twice in the last four seasons. With this win, Staten Island has eclipsed the 30-win plateau for the second time in program history with a 30-12 record. Baruch’s season ends with a record of 20-18.
 
“This is a special win,” head coach Mike Mauro said. “We have a lot of seniors on the team so winning it for them means a lot."
 
Staten Island’s ace Richard Anderson, the 2011 Tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and Baruch’s Paul Perez were given the nod for their respective teams. Going into the game, Anderson was 8-2 with a 2.34 ERA, and struck out 56 batters in 77 innings. Anderson led the conference in ERA, wins and innings pitched. Perez was 7-3 and logged 64.2 innings pitched and struck out 30. Both teams knew scoring runs would be difficult as both pitchers brought their “A” game.
 
Early on, Perez and Anderson were pounding the strike zone and relying on their defense to make the plays. Neither team scored in the first as Anderson and Perez were commanding all of their pitches.
 
In the bottom of the second, Staten Island’s John Baggs led off the inning with a single to left center. Knowing that scoring would be hard to come by, head coach Mauro elected to play it conservative and have David Carles lay down a sacrifice bunt to get Baggs into scoring position. Carles did his job and with one out, the Dolphins had a runner in scoring position. Phil Ciprello followed with a ground out to short, which advanced Baggs to third. With two outs and a runner on third, Daniel Lynch hit a soft groundball down the third baseline to bring home the first run of the night.
 
Both pitchers retired the side in the third inning as they were commanding the strike zone. In the top of the fourth with one out, the Bearcats Nick Pomo-Roman singled up the middle. Baruch’s head coach Jose Torres tried to jump-start his offense by having Pomo-Roman attempt a stolen base. However, Dolphins catcher Bryan Moreno fired a perfect strike to gun down Pomo-Roman at second.
 
Anderson and Perez continued throwing strikes throughout the quick-paced game, which resulted in them not needing to throw from the stretch all that much. Going into the eighth inning and Staten Island still leading 1-0, Baruch was able to muster a two-out single by Eric Ulino. Unfortunately for them, Anderson struck out the next batter and they now needed only three more outs to victory.
 
In the top of the ninth, Anderson struck out the first batter and retired the next batter on a fly out to left field. With two outs, Pomo-Roman singled through the right side to give Baruch some hope. However, Anderson would record the shutout and win on a groundout to third.
 
“This was one of the best pitching performances I’ve seen,” Mauro said. “If there is anyone that you want on the mound, it’s him. He did exactly what we wanted him to do.”
 
Anderson threw a complete game shutout, allowing six hits, no walks and struck out six. His counterpart, Perez, threw a complete game six hitter, allowed one run and struck out five.
 
“It’s possibly my last game as a college player,” Anderson said. “I wanted this win really bad.”
 
In an unanimous decision, he was awarded the Tournament’s Most Valuable Player for the second time in three seasons.
 
“This award means a lot to me…I am very proud of myself and my teammates,” he said.
 
Staten Island will not await word on a potential berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament as an at-large representative. The announcement will be made on Monday morning. 


GAME 7: Baruch 6, Staten Island 5 (in 11 innings)   Box Score

The #2 seeded Baruch Bearcats defeated the #1 seeded College of Staten Island Dolphins, 6-5, after scoring the game-winning run in the top of the 11th inning of the 2013 CUNYAC/MCU Baseball Championship. Baruch has forced a deciding Game 7, with the winner being crowned champions. Baruch’s Connor Hensen opposed Staten Island’s John Baggs.
 
“This was a great win for our team,” head coach Jose Torres said. “Our guys kept battling and we were able to capitalize on a key break in extras.”
 
Both pitchers were in a pitching duel through the first three innings. Baggs did not allow a hit and Henson allowed three hits. However, Baruch would string a rally in the top of the fourth inning to break the shutout.
 
Matthew Ballone led off the inning with a single through the right side and then stole second. Nicholas Pomo-Roman then hit an infield single, creating first and third with one out. Angel Tejada drove in Ballone with a single to give Baruch an early 1-0 lead. John Yuksekol followed doubling to right center to bring home Pomo-Roman. With second and third, Phillip Loprete singled through the left side to increase the Bearcats lead to 3-0. Later on in the inning, Daniel Arango laid down a perfect bunt single to drive in Yuksekol. Baruch led 4-0 after three and a half innings.
 
With one out in the 4th inning, CSI’s Robert Bernardo singled to right field and eventually advanced to second on a wild pitch. David Carles then hit a two-out RBI single to the left side to cut the deficit to 4-1. The Dolphins were not finished scoring as Phil Ciprello drove home Carles on a single down the left field line. At the end of the fourth, Staten Island led 4-2.
 
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Staten Island’s Pomo-Roman led off with a double to right center. Will DiFede then walked and John Baggs singled to left field, driving home Pomo-Roman. William Bernardo, who got on by a fielder’s choice, scored the game-tying run on a wild pitch. Going into the 7th inning, the game was tied, 4-4.
 
Both teams would not score in the seventh inning. In the top of the 8th, Pomo-Roman led off with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error. A ground out by Tejada would bring Pomo-Roman to third and with the infield in, Yuksekol singled through the left side to give Baruch a 5-4 lead.
 
Going into the bottom of the ninth, Staten Island’s Carles recorded a single with one out. Ciprello would single advancing the game-tying run to third. Down 0-2 in the count, Daniel Lynch executed a perfect suicide squeeze to tie the game at 5.
 
Richard Valerio walked to start the 11th inning for the Bearcats. Ballone laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Ballone to second with two outs. He would later score on a fielding error by the Dolphins to give Baruch their third lead of the game.
 
Andrew Lizardi, who entered the game in the middle of the ninth, retired the first two batters in the 11th. With two outs, Carles hit an infield single and stole second. Lizardi would eventually record the final out to give Baruch a much needed 6-5 win.
 
“Coming into the game, I knew I had to throw strikes,” Lizardi said. “Our defense was able to make all the plays in the field.”
 
Both teams will now face off in a deciding game that will dictate the 2013 CUNYAC/MCU Baseball Champions.
 
As for Game 7, Torres said, “All hands on deck….hopefully we can get the same result.”

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